Reincarnated with the Country System

(Proxima Center)

19-5-1561 WC

♦♦♦

11:02 Hours – Upper Stratosphere, Above the Aurelia Republic

The sky was calm. Just the silence of altitude and the hum of machinery built for annihilation.

Thirty-six B-21 Raiders—sleek, matte-black delta-wing bombers—glided silently through the upper atmosphere at nearly 50,000 feet. These weren't normal aircraft. They were 6th-generation stealth bombers purchased by Alberto through his System, technology centuries beyond the current world.

Made with meta-carbon composites, equipped with high-spectrum cloaking fields, and powered by quantum fusion turbines, these aircraft could operate beyond radar, beyond altitude interception, and beyond the comprehension of most surface nations.

Inside Raider 017, the pilot's voice came through the encrypted comms channel.

"Echo-Lead, this is Raider Seventeen. Visual on target package 'Aurora Node' confirmed. Coordinates locked. All systems green."

"Roger that, Raider Seventeen," replied Echo-Lead. "Maintain formation. Confirm target ID through HUD. This is a precision run. We hit hard, then vanish."

Below them, Aurelia's pride—its Central Command Node nestled in the silver-glass towers of Glyveris City—waited unaware. The Republic's own aerial fleet, composed of bulky Alchemical Skyframes and steam-augmented fighters, couldn't even reach the altitude of the Bernardian bombers. Their tracking systems were analog. Their sensors confused by jamming fields.

"Release team, stand by," the bombardier called out. Inside the aircraft, glowing runes fed live telemetry into targeting systems. Mana-kinetic bombs, each crafted with alchemical nerve disruptors and layered concussion arrays, slid into position.

"Bomb doors open. Target acquired."

"Seventeen, this is Echo-Lead. You are green for release. Clean strike. No mercy."

"Copy that. Ordinance away."

With a soft mechanical whump, four bombs slipped into freefall. A second later, another dozen followed from nearby Raiders.

Then silence.

Until the first shockwave hit the ground.

...

11:05 Hours – Aurelia Republic, Glyveris City – Command Bunker beneath the Palace

The room was packed with figures in red-trimmed military uniforms and dark-gray technocrat robes. Prime Technarch and Senator Vallen, a gaunt man with copper-threaded eyes, slammed his fist against the table.

"We made a trade agreement with them three months ago!" he spat, voice trembling. "Three months! Our technologists sold them refined core fluid. Our tacticians shared navigation protocols. And now this?"

"They are Bernardians," General Lys said flatly, arms crossed over his steel breastplate. "They never intended to honor anything. They waited until our guard was lowered. We should never have trusted them."

"What are our options?" muttered Senator Ilyra. She stared up at the trembling lights on the war map—three more installations had gone dark in the last two minutes. "They're stronger. Their tech is centuries ahead of ours. And now they're bombing our energy grid, communication towers, military bunkers—everything."

A low rumble vibrated the floor. Another direct hit, this time to the East Arcana Station, lit the holographic table in crimson.

"We need to surrender." The words came from an older man—Admiral Fernik, his voice cracked with age and despair. "We don't even know what kind of weapons they're using. Nothing we built can reach them. If we don't open terms… they'll erase us."

Gasps followed. Shock, disbelief.

"Surrender?" barked General Lys. "To an empire? We are a republic! A republic carved from the ashes of tyranny two centuries ago. You want to hand that over without a fight? You dishonor every name on our Wall of Liberation."

"And what would you have us do?" snapped Senator Ilyra, turning on him. "Send the Clockwork Army into the air? We can't even reach the sky where they fly. Our arcane signal towers are burning. Our Tactician Command Nodes are gone. If we lose the main core—it's over. The automata will shut down across the capital."

A junior officer staggered into the chamber.

"The Sky-Tether Tower is collapsing," he wheezed. "We've lost all uplink to the Western Tactician Dome. Our northern shield gates failed thirty seconds ago."

Silence returned. Cold, dead, final.

....

11:12 Hours – High Altitude, Bernardian Air Command – Onboard Control Ship "Vigilance"

A floating dreadnought—part aircraft carrier, part battleship, and entirely unseen by Aurelia's sensors—moved gently above the stratosphere, orchestrating the attack.

Inside the command deck, dozens of officers stood around glowing interface rings. Real-time footage showed collapsing buildings, scrambled clockwork units, and burning towers.

Lopez's folded his hands behind his back as General Kael, commander of the Bernardian Aerospace Division, approached.

"Phase One is complete," Kael said. "No losses. No resistance. We've crippled their military command within fifteen minutes. Secondary targets are collapsing in sequence."

"Begin Phase Two." Lopez's voice was calm, detached. "Strike all mobile Tactician Nodes. We leave them blind."

"Understood. Raider teams will rotate targets. We estimate another five minutes before the Clockwork Army fully loses command connectivity."

On the screen, hundreds of silver automata stopped mid-step. Some twitched, others simply froze.

"Beautiful," Lopez muttered.

.....

11:15 Hours – Aurelia Bunker

Panic was beginning to set in. The lights flickered. Even the air circulation began to slow.

Technarch Vallen slammed his palm against the console.

"We need a response. A counterattack. Anything!"

"There is nothing left to throw," Ilyra said quietly. "We built our army to be efficient. Attractive. Calculated. But not independent. Every division requires command. And the Tacticians are either dead, or disconnected."

Another pause. Then Fernik spoke again.

"There's still a way to preserve lives. Call for a truce. Send a delegation. Surrender does not mean extinction. We may retain limited autonomy if we act now."

"And what then?" Lys asked. "Let them walk over us? Turn us into another vassal? Our people won't stand for that."

"Our people will die otherwise."

Ilyra looked toward the large stone pillar at the center of the bunker—the Republic Flame, kept burning since the nation's founding. She closed her eyes.

"Two hundred years ago, our ancestors bled for this nation. I will not let it die in a single day."

"Then give me a plan," Vallen said bitterly.

"Send the Deep Signal. We still have one communication relay beneath the Mirror Lakes. It's buried too deep to be bombed from orbit. We use it. Transmit to all cells. Call every hidden unit, every old sentinel. We fight from the shadows."

"Guerrilla warfare?" Vallen looked incredulous.

"Ya," Ilyra said. "If we surrender now, we'll never rise again. We bleed them slow. One skirmish at a time."

General Lys nodded. "Agreed. Send the order."

.....

11:20 Hours – Bernardian Air Command

Inside the Vigilance, Air Chief Marshal Lopez received an update.

"We're detecting fragmented transmissions from the Mirror Lakes region," said one technician. "Encrypted. Localized. Underground relays."

"Resistance," Air Chief Marshal Lopez said with a tired sigh. "As expected."

"Will we order ground invasion?"